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China’s Leader Closes Door to Reform

Hostesses for the Communist Partys 17th National Congress played a game Monday outside the Great Hall of the People.Credit
Teh Eng Koon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

BEIJING, Oct. 15 — President Hu Jintao promised to address social fissures, a degraded environment and rampant corruption during his second term as China’s top leader, but he all but ruled out more than cosmetic political reform in his opening address on Monday at the 17th National Congress of the governing Communist Party.

Mr. Hu spoke extensively about his “scientific view of development,” a set of lofty, vague principles supporting harmonious economic, social and political development.

The congress will enshrine the phrase “scientific view of development” into the party’s constitution alongside the political slogans of Mao, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin, elevating Mr. Hu into the pantheon of leaders as he begins his second and final term as party general secretary, head of state and military chief.

This speech kicked off the weeklong event, which is held once every five years to extol past leaders and welcome a roster of younger officials newly elevated to leading roles. Party members have described the leadership contest, conducted in secret, as fractious. But the congress proceedings, which are ceremonial, present a facade of seamless unity and continuity.

In the main auditorium of the Great Hall of the People, under a giant hammer and sickle, Mr. Hu appeared on a rostrum with all the other members of the Politburo and the Central Committee, arranged in precise hierarchical order. They were joined by party elders, including Mr. Jiang, Mr. Hu’s direct predecessor, and at least two stalwarts of an earlier era, Wan Li and Song Ping, both more than 90 years old.

In keeping with tradition, Mr. Hu’s address, which lasted two and half hours, stressed the correctness of the rhetoric and guiding philosophies of the past. Though the text of the speech ran to 64 pages, Mr. Hu discussed few specific government programs and provided only broad hints about what he intended to do between now and 2012, when under party retirement rules he will make way for a new top leader.

“China is going through a wide-ranging and deep-going transformation,” Mr. Hu told the 2,200 party delegates and a national television audience. “This brings us unprecedented opportunities as well as unprecedented challenges. On the whole, the opportunities outweigh the challenges.”

Mr. Hu revised one well-established goal, the quadrupling of economic output from 2000 to 2020, saying that the party would now aim for a fourfold increase in “per capita G.D.P.” instead of overall gross domestic product over that period.

The switch to a per capita target reflects Mr. Hu’s emphasis on populist goals. But China’s population increase — estimated at about 200 million during the 20-year period — makes the goal more ambitious. That suggests that Mr. Hu thinks the economy can outperform what he and his predecessors considered possible — or prudent — at the last party congress in 2002.

He called the international situation favorable to China, saying a “trend toward a multipolar world is irreversible.” He offered to hold peace talks with Taiwan, the self-governing island China claims as its territory, as long as the island’s leadership sets aside independence goals.

In defining “scientific development,” Mr. Hu discussed the growing gap between rich and poor. He said that the economy relied too much on investment and not enough on consumption, and that the leadership should do more to protect the environment.

“We must adopt an enlightened approach to development that results in expanded production, a better life and sound ecological and environmental conditions,” he said.

Photo

President Hu Jintao of China, left, and his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, at the opening ceremony for the meeting.Credit
Greg Baker/Associated Press

Mr. Hu said the party should become more responsive to the public. He also called for “intraparty democracy,” or allowing more party officials to participate in decision making.

Corruption, he said, poses a threat to the party’s survival, a particularly resonant issue after the leadership purged the former Shanghai Party boss, Chen Liangyu, in one of the highest-level corruption scandals in its history.

But Mr. Hu advocated only incremental political change. He insisted on maintaining the party’s monopoly on power, saying that it must remain “the core that directs the overall situation and coordinates the efforts of all quarters.”

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The proceedings got under way even as speculation mounted that the party elite was still negotiating membership in the new Politburo Standing Committee, the top governing body, even though a list of people slated for top posts was submitted to the Central Committee last week, according to people told about the closed-door proceedings.

The list called for a nine-man Standing Committee headed by Mr. Hu, with three current members retiring. Two younger leaders, Xi Jinping, party boss of Shanghai, and Li Keqiang, party secretary of Liaoning Province, are expected to join the Standing Committee and inherit top jobs when Mr. Hu steps down, the people told about the meeting said.

But over the weekend one of the current Standing Committee members who was expected to retire, Vice President Zeng Qinghong, was appointed secretary general of the congress’s secretariat, a position that historically signals inclusion in the Standing Committee for the coming term.

That suggests that Mr. Hu was either awarding an unusual honor to Mr. Zeng, or that the vice president, considered the second most powerful official in the party apparatus after Mr. Hu, may stay on for another term.

It also remained unclear whether the Central Committee, which will have the opportunity to vote on the leadership roster, will signal its disapproval of one or more senior leaders. While such dissenting votes are rare, low vote totals can force unpopular officials to step aside.

The final lineup will not be known for certain until Sunday, when the new Politburo Standing Committee makes its first joint public appearance to conclude the congress.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 (Reuters) — China, protesting a plan by Congress to honor the Dalai Lama, pulled out of a meeting this week at which world powers were to discuss further action against Iran, the State Department said Monday.

The meeting — scheduled for Wednesday in Berlin to discuss the showdown with Iran over its nuclear program — has been postponed, probably until next week, said a State Department official, who spoke on condition he not be identified.

“They had indigestion over the presence of certain spiritual leaders” in the United States and at an event with Congress, the official said.

The Dalai Lama is regarded by China as a Tibetan separatist. His presence at the Congressional Gold Medal award ceremony at the Capitol is to be the first time he and President Bush appear together in public.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A8 of the National edition with the headline: In Party Speech, Hu Aims For Progress (With Limits). Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe